Latest / STOPTIME: Live in the Moment. / Aimee Stevland: The Art of Seeing Differently

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Aimee Stevland: The Art of Seeing Differently · STOPTIME: Live in the Moment.

0:24
Lisa Hopkins: This is the Stop Time Podcast.
0:26
Lisa Hopkins: I'm your host, Lisa Hopkins, and I'm here to engage you in thought-provoking motivational conversations around practicing the art of living in the moment.
0:35
Lisa Hopkins: I'm a certified life coach, and I'm excited to dig deep and offer insights into embracing who we are and where we are at.
0:44
Lisa Hopkins: Her latest project, Portraits of Excellence, celebrates the black musicians and creators who have shaped her own life and our culture, shining a light on their contributions while opening up conversations about music, well-being, and cultural impact.
1:21
Lisa Hopkins: Her own creative journey is also one of curiosity, resilience, and reinvention, an exploration of what it means to remain connected to who we are when the way we create and perhaps even the way we see ourselves has changed.
1:35
Lisa Hopkins: I'm delighted to introduce you and to get to know myself, Amy Stevlin.
1:40
Lisa Hopkins: Amy, welcome to Stop Time.
1:43
Aimee Stevland: Thank you.
1:43
Aimee Stevland: It's great to be here with you and thank you so much for having me.
1:46
Lisa Hopkins: It's my pleasure.
1:47
Lisa Hopkins: I'm glad that we connected.
1:49
Lisa Hopkins: Um, and I would love to just jump in.
1:51
Lisa Hopkins: I'd just like to know just a little bit about you and your origin story and how you arrived here in this moment.
1:57
Aimee Stevland: Yeah, um, my journey begins in Detroit.
2:01
Aimee Stevland: About, you know, about um 30 years ago is when I started having, you know, a real uh attunement to music and pop culture and uh things like that.
2:11
Aimee Stevland: And uh I I was enamored by the album covers in my father's record collection.
2:18
Aimee Stevland: This is where I sort of um got my first glimpse of um, I forget who said it, but there's somebody said it's the poor man's art.
2:25
Aimee Stevland: Oh, interesting.
2:27
Aimee Stevland: Yeah, but that really was my sort of gateway to both visual um, you know, design and then also music in general.
2:36
Aimee Stevland: So um that's that's sort of where it started.
2:39
Aimee Stevland: I started, you know, drawing as a kid, um, you know, with sort of hopes and dreams of maybe being able to have a career out of it.
2:48
Aimee Stevland: And uh little did I know I'd actually be able to do that.
2:52
Lisa Hopkins: Uh yeah.
2:54
Lisa Hopkins: Oh, that's amazing.
2:56
Lisa Hopkins: So were you drawing at that time?
2:58
Lisa Hopkins: Like were you were you a doodler?
2:59
Lisa Hopkins: Were you someone that liked to sort of pick up a pen and paper or yeah, I loved um I loved drawing.
3:06
Aimee Stevland: I was really into cartooning.
3:08
Aimee Stevland: Um I loved, you know, Looney Tunes and um all the Hannah Barbera, Scooby-Doo, all of that stuff, you know, Saturday morning cartoons, all of that stuff.
3:16
Aimee Stevland: Um yeah, I really got into that.
3:18
Aimee Stevland: So yeah, I was I even when I was a kid, I was sort of drawing the things that I saw on TV or um, you know, movies and things I was doing my own sort of graphic novels, so to speak.
3:29
Aimee Stevland: So I had always, for whatever reason, at an early age, I had always been sort of um drawing what I see in pop culture um and putting it into you know drawing form or cartoon form.
3:43
Lisa Hopkins: What do you think?
3:44
Lisa Hopkins: Maybe you've never thought about this.
3:47
Lisa Hopkins: It's just coming to me.
3:48
Lisa Hopkins: I'm I'm truly curious, like what do you think it was about that that drew you?
3:54
Lisa Hopkins: Pardon the pun, but that drew that that drew you to that.
3:58
Lisa Hopkins: Meaning, you know, when you're you do something very specific, right?
4:02
Lisa Hopkins: You see something that let's say you admire or that that pulled your, you know, pulled your interest, and then you're able to synthesize that in you and create something that you know to the to the point of you know, portraits of excellence, really speaks to the reverence you have for the artists themselves, but also just even before you got into the specificity of artists of of creating renderings of artists, but rather just even just that that drawing.
4:36
Lisa Hopkins: Think of a young girl, you know, picking up the paper and saying, I see that, and then drawing it like that.
4:41
Lisa Hopkins: What I guess the question here, here's the question.
4:44
Lisa Hopkins: The question is what what problem did you think that solved, or what maybe not problem, what space did that fill in you?
4:55
Aimee Stevland: Yeah, um, I hope this answer isn't a little too dark, but it was almost uh my refuge in a household that was uh not always so nurturing and loving.
5:07
Aimee Stevland: Um I think that was my um, you know, the in the rare chances where I got to even watch TV or listen to things, um a little bit of a uh satanic panic lockdown in my house for a while.
5:18
Aimee Stevland: So I would take, you know, I would see those things and then, you know, in those moments where I was, you know, sort of alone in my room.
5:27
Aimee Stevland: Um, and that's just where I guess I found some refuge in, you know, kind of the things that would swirl in my head, you know, what can I make with them?
5:36
Aimee Stevland: What can I, what can I, um, you know, how can I sort of interpret them, you know, in my own little space, on my own little pile of, you know, scrap dot matrix paper, you know?
5:47
Aimee Stevland: That kind of thing.
5:48
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
5:48
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
5:49
Lisa Hopkins: Were you were you drawn to color or were did you do more black and white?
5:53
Aimee Stevland: Mostly like pen, like pencil or uh sharpie.
5:56
Aimee Stevland: Went through a lot of sharpies.
5:58
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
5:59
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
5:59
Aimee Stevland: And was there something tactile about it, like that like the actual the actual bringing it through you to the paper that really I really think, you know, now with my journey that, you know, we probably get into a little bit later now that I that has I don't can't do that anymore.
6:15
Aimee Stevland: Um there I definitely feel yes, there is something really tactile about pen to paper and that um just in that little in the little noise of the little nib, you know, scratching against the paper.
6:27
Aimee Stevland: Um yeah, it really um I think as a kid, especially, it just kind of sent me into my own world where it was safe and where it was fun.
6:37
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
6:37
Aimee Stevland: So definitely, definitely a tactile, um, sort of visceral piece of that.
6:42
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
6:43
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah, which is cathartic in its own way, isn't it?
6:45
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
6:45
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
6:46
Lisa Hopkins: Oh, that's so interesting.
6:47
Lisa Hopkins: Thank you for sharing that.
6:48
Lisa Hopkins: Do you remember the moment like when you were a young person when you picked it up and you got a sense of, oh, I can actually do this.
6:57
Aimee Stevland: Um, I think my first memory of it was sort of like being sort of acknowledged for it or having it validated was like in kindergarten.
7:05
Aimee Stevland: I, you know, I did like a family, you know, as all kids do, you do a family portrait or something.
7:10
Aimee Stevland: And I saw the reactions of the teachers were like, wow, like this is not, you know, this isn't chicken scratch.
7:17
Aimee Stevland: Like this is a fully formed, these are fully formed people with, you know, actual faces.
7:22
Aimee Stevland: And um, yeah, so I mean, I I think as far back as kindergarten, I think there was a sense of like, okay, I have I have a little something here that, you know, people respond to.
7:33
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
7:34
Lisa Hopkins: Did that inspire you to do more?
7:35
Lisa Hopkins: Like, was that was that reaffirming in a way that you applied yourself or did it feel like a pressure?
7:42
Aimee Stevland: Um I think it was it was it was nice.
7:45
Aimee Stevland: I don't, I don't know that it drove me either way.
7:48
Aimee Stevland: Um, I just I like to do it.
7:50
Aimee Stevland: So that's really more what led me, you know, doing it.
7:53
Aimee Stevland: Fair enough.
7:54
Aimee Stevland: I just like doing it.
7:56
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
7:56
Lisa Hopkins: Fair enough.
7:57
Lisa Hopkins: You know, I just I was just cottoning on to you saying, you know, people responded, and and sometimes as children, when they respond positively to something you do, you attach it to your safety, even.
8:08
Lisa Hopkins: You attach it to, oh, you know, when I do this, I make people feel good and then I'm safe.
8:13
Lisa Hopkins: You know?
8:14
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
8:14
Lisa Hopkins: Um yeah, I love your answer.
8:16
Lisa Hopkins: She's like, no, I just love to do it.
8:17
Lisa Hopkins: And it was kind of cool that people, I mean, that's fair.
8:19
Lisa Hopkins: How do you start?
8:21
Lisa Hopkins: You know, you get inspired, I'm guessing, right?
8:24
Lisa Hopkins: You're getting you get inspired.
8:25
Lisa Hopkins: Like, talk to me through that.
8:26
Lisa Hopkins: Like to you, it may seem obvious.
8:28
Lisa Hopkins: To me, not at all.
8:29
Aimee Stevland: Sure.
8:30
Aimee Stevland: And it's interesting because, you know, when you do it for so long, you know, maybe you sort of go on autopilot, and and I might have to think a little about how it starts, because I guess it just feels so automatic now.
8:41
Aimee Stevland: But but maybe thinking back, the first person that I really um really got into drawing was Janet Jackson.
8:48
Aimee Stevland: She's a huge star, you know, the biggest star, you know, arguably of the 90s.
8:53
Aimee Stevland: I'm a huge fan.
8:54
Aimee Stevland: Um, and I started drawing her specifically.
8:58
Aimee Stevland: Um, I think number one, I just, you know, loved her artistry.
9:02
Aimee Stevland: I loved her music.
9:03
Aimee Stevland: Um, and there was also kind of uh simmering in the background was this notion of, you know, now as I'm becoming more aware of music and pop culture in my own, you know, in my own space, not, you know, not my dad's collection, but you know, sort of my own musical uh, you know, vocabulary.
9:22
Aimee Stevland: Um, I noticed, well, you know, growing up in the shadow of Motown and everything like I am an RB soul, I'm a groove child.
9:31
Aimee Stevland: Like that's just what I, you know, connected to from my dad's collection was all of the Motown and Soul and Funk Records.
9:38
Aimee Stevland: Um and and I started to have this realization as I'm going through um, you know, the the culture magazines and things like that that that my heroes are not necessarily showing up in these spaces.
9:50
Aimee Stevland: I'm not seeing, you know, unless you're Michael Jackson or somebody who's, you know, just ginormous and you know can't be, you know, denied.
9:58
Aimee Stevland: I'm not seeing my heroes in these spaces.
10:01
Aimee Stevland: And um, so that's sort of germinating.
10:04
Aimee Stevland: But also, um, you know, being a fan of Janet, she often talked about how her brothers uh, you know, are off on tour.
10:11
Aimee Stevland: And the way that she sort of got to connect through them was through their cartoon, the Jackson 5 cartoon.
10:16
Aimee Stevland: Um and it was sort of those two things that I put together, specifically with Janet, was like, I'm not seeing she's one of the biggest stars in the world right now.
10:26
Aimee Stevland: She's not really and I'm speaking more like editorial illustration and things like that.
10:32
Aimee Stevland: Um, obviously her picture was everywhere.
10:34
Aimee Stevland: We all know like the famous, you know, the famous pictures, but I'm talking about it in sort of editorial illustration.
10:40
Aimee Stevland: Um, yeah, I I found that black folks were not represented in when they were.
10:45
Aimee Stevland: They were very distorted and caricature-like.
10:49
Aimee Stevland: I mean, yeah.
10:50
Aimee Stevland: So anyway, so coming back to these two sort of things in the back of my mind.
10:55
Aimee Stevland: So I'm I'm a huge Janet fan.
10:57
Aimee Stevland: She's talking about how much she loved her brother's cartoon and how she connected with them.
11:01
Aimee Stevland: And I just kind of brought this notion of the cartoon together, you know, with you know, the things that I'm not seeing.
11:09
Aimee Stevland: And to me, you know, a car if you're in a cartoon, that's a big deal.
11:12
Aimee Stevland: Like you're there's like a heroic identity imbued in that for me.
11:16
Aimee Stevland: Like, you know, I'm a Gen X kid, so I grew up, you know, with the He-Man and She-Ra and all that stuff.
11:21
Aimee Stevland: So for me, cartoons sort of carry a different, um, they carried a heroic identity for me.
11:27
Aimee Stevland: And so that's where the connection was really made was with Janet.
11:31
Lisa Hopkins: So the Janet exam example sort of tells me there was an in an inspiration and admiration, and then also a mission, a little bit of a mission, right?
11:41
Lisa Hopkins: To to elevate, to support.
11:43
Lisa Hopkins: Have you ever been given sort of like for instance, if someone said, uh, you know, I want you to do Lisa and you didn't connect, like, like, would you be able to do that?
11:51
Lisa Hopkins: Like, what's I'm curious to know like what it is that you know that makes you kind of go, I I can do that.
11:58
Lisa Hopkins: I want to do that.
11:59
Lisa Hopkins: Because it sounds very self-driven, right?
12:00
Lisa Hopkins: You've chosen, yeah.
12:01
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah, yeah.
12:02
Aimee Stevland: Yeah, specifically with this portrait series, um, yeah, it's definitely driven, you know, there's a a bit of a you know, personal editorial aspect of it where it's people who uh are interesting to me, people whose work that I, you know, have enjoyed, or somebody that I learned about um who was sort of responsible for something that I love but wasn't necessarily aware of.
12:26
Aimee Stevland: And so wanting to give them um, you know, wanting to capture them in this, you know, this really unique way, in this unique portrait style, um, so that, you know, now we can, you know, to learn about them, you know, see their faces and learn about them when we when they've been kind of um you know erased before.
12:45
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
12:45
Lisa Hopkins: When you're doing these, these portraits, do you listen to their music?
12:49
Aimee Stevland: It's one of the favorite, it's like my favorite part of the whole deal.
12:53
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
12:53
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
12:54
Aimee Stevland: You get to listen to so much great music.
12:55
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
12:56
Lisa Hopkins: How long does it take you, say, to do a portrait?
13:00
Aimee Stevland: Um, that's a good question, depending on um the level of detail.
13:05
Aimee Stevland: Like sometimes when you're getting into clothing, hair, uh, things like that, a little more detailed.
13:10
Aimee Stevland: Um, I I work a little differently.
13:13
Aimee Stevland: Um, I work in sort of spurts.
13:15
Aimee Stevland: Um uh, but I would say one portrait might take eight to ten hours.
13:21
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
13:22
Lisa Hopkins: Okay.
13:22
Lisa Hopkins: And then do you sometimes have more than one portrait going?
13:25
Lisa Hopkins: Like or do you do one at a time?
13:27
Aimee Stevland: Um I I think I tend to do one at a time because I think I really get sort of immersed in their world.
13:33
Aimee Stevland: I, you know, I research them, I'm listening to their music or um, yeah, learning about them.
13:38
Aimee Stevland: So yeah, I think I tend to get, yeah, I tend to sort of stick with one at a time to really give them their time, their space.
13:45
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
13:45
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
13:46
Lisa Hopkins: And so you were able to make a career of doing this.
13:49
Lisa Hopkins: Now I know that you had the opportunity with Janet when you were 19, right?
13:52
Lisa Hopkins: And if I read it correctly, it wasn't so much that you ended up doing, I mean, you did the thing, you pitched the thing, and it didn't necessarily flopped real hard right in front of my favorite.
14:02
Lisa Hopkins: But it was another one of those moments, aha moments that, oh, I I've I'm being seen, and this is probably the right thing.
14:09
Lisa Hopkins: Maybe not this project, but that what I'm doing, right?
14:12
Lisa Hopkins: Which which is pretty cool.
14:14
Lisa Hopkins: Where did you go from there?
14:16
Aimee Stevland: Yeah, so I um it was really that that sort of um situation with the Janet um album cover, just to kind of you know clarify.
14:28
Aimee Stevland: So when I was at the teenager, and this is the early, you know, the early dawn of the home internet, yeah, and I'm sharing these cartoons, and um, you know, Janet and her creative team actually found them.
14:39
Aimee Stevland: Um, they liked them so much, uh, they asked me to do a concept for her album cover that was coming up at the time.
14:47
Aimee Stevland: It was The Velvet Rope.
14:48
Aimee Stevland: Um, I submitted a concept sketch.
14:51
Aimee Stevland: Um, couldn't quite pull off what I saw in my head, but they were very gracious.
14:56
Aimee Stevland: Um, they didn't move forward with that.
14:58
Aimee Stevland: And uh, if you know that album, love that album, you'll you'll know that they absolutely made the best choice for that.
15:06
Aimee Stevland: Um, you know, Janet is musical royalty, and I was kind of like this nobody teenager in Michigan.
15:12
Aimee Stevland: I mean, it was just wild that I was found this way.
15:16
Aimee Stevland: And I think, you know, her support and her encouragement gave me this sense of like, wow, maybe I maybe I can do this for a living, you know.
15:25
Aimee Stevland: So fast forward a few years later, um, I moved out to the San Francisco Bay Area.
15:29
Aimee Stevland: Um, at the time I had a long distance partner and uh we we made uh you know plans to to you know move in together.
15:37
Aimee Stevland: And so I ended up in the Bay Area.
15:39
Aimee Stevland: And um, and then I got a job at the uh merchandising um music merchandising company.
15:47
Aimee Stevland: There really is only one or two that existed at the time.
15:50
Aimee Stevland: So so I I think I had always wanted to do album covers, right?
15:54
Aimee Stevland: But by this time, album covers had just become little tiny digital thumbnails.
15:58
Aimee Stevland: So um, so I got to work on the next best thing, which was the t-shirt.
16:03
Aimee Stevland: That that was my new canvas.
16:05
Aimee Stevland: And so I had studied uh screen printing and stuff in school.
16:09
Aimee Stevland: I went uh, you know, in high school I had a um I went to vocational school, so I kind of knew uh the you know this this craft a little bit.
16:17
Aimee Stevland: And so this the the world's perfectly merged.
16:20
Aimee Stevland: Um I was I was getting to do artwork and uh designs for these artists, the merchandise, and um yeah, and and and so I would I was getting to contribute to the the legacy of all these incredible artists, which was really cool.
16:36
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah, that is really cool.
16:37
Lisa Hopkins: Did you ever have an opportunity to to work like one-on-one with them, or was it always just you know, sort of through?
16:43
Lisa Hopkins: I know that it can be a real machine, right?
16:45
Aimee Stevland: Yeah, it definitely is.
16:47
Aimee Stevland: Definitely a lot of gatekeepers, yeah, a lot of folks to go through.
16:50
Aimee Stevland: But there were there were some really fun projects where I did get to meet with the artists and and do um, you never really got to work side by side with them.
16:58
Aimee Stevland: You were sort of handed direction.
17:00
Aimee Stevland: I think it's pretty typical that you know most most artists are going out supporting an album.
17:05
Aimee Stevland: So you basically are uh you know sort of matching the vibe of that album that's already been uh set.
17:13
Aimee Stevland: But um I did I did get to meet a couple artists.
17:16
Aimee Stevland: Mariah Carey was really wonderful.
17:19
Aimee Stevland: Uh we had a very lively chat.
17:22
Aimee Stevland: So um, yeah, so we get so I got to I got to do some pitches.
17:26
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
17:27
Lisa Hopkins: Um You said that with the Janet thing that you couldn't render what you had in your head.
17:34
Lisa Hopkins: And I'm curious if now if you had the opportunity again to do something like that, if if you feel like you would be able to do it.
17:44
Aimee Stevland: Yeah, it's funny.
17:45
Aimee Stevland: I went I actually went back to that piece um not too long after um the situation with my my hand when uh my focal dystonia set in because I wanted to I wanted to see if now with digital tools that I was sort of playing with could I do this.
18:01
Aimee Stevland: And I ended up finished and I ended up doing uh finishing a version of it many years ago that I was much more happy with.
18:08
Aimee Stevland: Um so yeah, I pulled I pulled that sketch out, and that sketch uh went through so that it got stolen out of my car.
18:15
Aimee Stevland: Um it was crazy.
18:18
Aimee Stevland: And then I actually found like I was teaching high school at the time, and it just so happens that wherever these goofballs dumped my the stuff from my that they stole from my car, they dumped it in a dentist's parking lot where one of my students' mothers happened to work, and I got my stuff back.
18:38
Lisa Hopkins: It was crazy.
18:40
Aimee Stevland: Um, so so I get so this little sketch was all crumpled up and I managed to save it and you know scan it and and then yeah, so I um yeah, some years later I I finished it up um to a version that I am like, okay, if I had been able to do this, you know, 10, 15 years ago, maybe.
18:59
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
19:01
Lisa Hopkins: Talk to me a little bit about you mentioned the hand thing and the was it just dystonia?
19:06
Lisa Hopkins: Am I saying right?
19:07
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah, it's called focal dystonia.
19:08
Lisa Hopkins: Focal dystonia.
19:09
Lisa Hopkins: So um if I understand correctly, um without getting into the details of it, you you lost the use of of of your hand.
19:17
Lisa Hopkins: Um it certainly to use to use it in the way that you needed to use it as an artist, right?
19:23
Aimee Stevland: Correct.
19:23
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
19:23
Aimee Stevland: It's a task-specific uh focal dystonia, which means for me, it was specific to the activity of writing or drawing.
19:33
Lisa Hopkins: So what sort of happened to the sense of who you were in that moment?
19:36
Lisa Hopkins: I mean, it's sort of like a dancer with a broken knee.
19:40
Lisa Hopkins: I'm just curious to know how that felt for you.
19:43
Aimee Stevland: It felt like, you know, like Wiley Coyote with a acme bomb and just imploded my entire life.
19:50
Aimee Stevland: Um my career, my identity, my body, like my physical um, you know, limitations, um, my relationship, my coming out.
20:03
Aimee Stevland: It was like hitting a brick wall and then having your life explode it is is the best way I can, you know, looking back, right?
20:14
Aimee Stevland: I'm laughing now, but um at the time it was devastating.
20:18
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
20:18
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
20:19
Aimee Stevland: How long ago was it?
20:21
Aimee Stevland: Uh this would be going on it's going on 20 years now.
20:25
Lisa Hopkins: Okay.
20:25
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
20:26
Lisa Hopkins: So it's interesting because you associate it with all of your life exploding.
20:31
Lisa Hopkins: I mean, I can understand your your career feeling like it's exploding because you're gonna have to pivot, right?
20:36
Lisa Hopkins: But it's interesting that it that it bled into, or at least from your perspective, it bled into your entire life.
20:42
Lisa Hopkins: Tell me a little bit more about that.
20:44
Lisa Hopkins: I'm interested in like the perception that that it did affect everything.
20:50
Aimee Stevland: I think it in its in this weird sort of silver lining way, um everything stopped.
20:58
Aimee Stevland: Um, I think prior to that moment in in my life, uh I was about 30 at the time.
21:05
Aimee Stevland: Um and I think prior to that, everything was about survival.
21:12
Aimee Stevland: I've been an orphan since my late 20s.
21:16
Aimee Stevland: Um it's just me.
21:17
Aimee Stevland: You know, I have a sister who's really like, you know, me out in the world.
21:21
Aimee Stevland: And so prior to this, it it had just been, I think, autopilot survival.
21:28
Aimee Stevland: Um, and I was so lucky to have, you know, I found my dream job and I was, you know, going, going, going.
21:33
Aimee Stevland: And this when this happened, when I couldn't use my hand anymore, it really just forced a full stop on everything.
21:43
Aimee Stevland: And um, I guess in that space, I finally had time to consider things like what do I really want to do with the rest of my life?
21:53
Aimee Stevland: What what is my life gonna look like now that I have these certain physical chat, you know, limitations.
22:00
Aimee Stevland: Um I I'm all of a sudden figuring out, you know, I have I'm with a partner who's kind and caring and and loving and something just off, you know, thinking about well, what is, you know, what's that about?
22:12
Aimee Stevland: Um but I think so, yeah, in essence, um, it just gave me this huge chasm sort of echo.
22:22
Aimee Stevland: Room of like be sitting with myself um and sort of assessing, you know, what are the things that I did for survival that maybe aren't gonna serve me moving forward, and what are the things that I have the I have the opportunity to uh switch up you know as I move forward.
22:44
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
22:45
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
22:46
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah, I know for sure.
22:48
Lisa Hopkins: Did you create during that time?
22:51
Aimee Stevland: Um my my relationship with creativity, especially in the beginning.
22:56
Aimee Stevland: Um, you know, I think I was still angry and grieving, you know, why is this happening to me?
23:02
Aimee Stevland: I did everything right.
23:03
Aimee Stevland: You know, they tell you you, you know, you're supposed to you you start at the bottom, you work hard, you pay your dues, all this stuff.
23:08
Aimee Stevland: And I was like, well, well, I did everything I was supposed to do, right?
23:12
Aimee Stevland: And now this happens.
23:14
Aimee Stevland: And um, so yeah, I went through the sort of initial period of sort of anger and grief and and all of that, and then finally was like, okay, um, I can't lay here in the rubble forever.
23:27
Aimee Stevland: Um, you know, I have a lot of life left to live.
23:30
Aimee Stevland: What's this gonna look like now?
23:32
Aimee Stevland: And so um yeah, I for a while I put away uh what I guess what I'll call sort of traditional artwork, so visual art.
23:42
Aimee Stevland: Um and I just leaned into music.
23:45
Aimee Stevland: I listened to a lot of music during this time.
23:47
Aimee Stevland: I had a lot of free time, so I listened to a lot of music.
23:51
Aimee Stevland: I was introduced to roller skating, also this community of other adult skaters.
23:57
Aimee Stevland: Um, you know, I didn't know people were still doing this, and I fell in love with it and realized uh that I could now create with my feet.
24:06
Aimee Stevland: So I got into dance uh a little bit.
24:10
Aimee Stevland: Uh so this opened up a world of like, okay, um, I can now create with my feet.
24:16
Aimee Stevland: Uh and so um this really helped me get into my body, which you know was something, you know, prior to um starting to lose the function in my hand, you know, again, going on autopilot, um I probably abused the heck out of my body and didn't really realize it.
24:33
Aimee Stevland: And this was, you know, my hand was telling me slow down, listen to me.
24:38
Aimee Stevland: So so roller skating, I think, put me in my body more.
24:44
Aimee Stevland: And then obviously the connection of um the music, I got into DJing a little bit.
24:50
Aimee Stevland: Skating music is uh like good skating music from the black community is it's my kind of music.
25:00
Aimee Stevland: It's got that downbeat, it's got that groove, it's got that funk in it.
25:03
Aimee Stevland: And so this was the perfect place for me.
25:07
Aimee Stevland: So I really, I really embraced that.
25:10
Aimee Stevland: I was really embraced by the community, and um that became a big part of my life.
25:14
Aimee Stevland: Um, I became a skate instructor.
25:16
Aimee Stevland: Like I said, um I DJed a little bit, a little weekend DJ action.
25:21
Aimee Stevland: Um and then yeah, I you know, I started to, and then I did some other forms of dance.
25:26
Aimee Stevland: I played with the salsa dancing and blues dancing, uh, things like that.
25:30
Aimee Stevland: Um, that yeah, just it was like it introduced me back into my body and was like, okay, there's creativity can unfold more ways than you were doing.
25:43
Aimee Stevland: So that was a big sort of um, you know, epiphany for me.
25:48
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
25:48
Aimee Stevland: And then I slowly came back to, okay, time to get a jabby job.
25:54
Aimee Stevland: You know, like the savings is kind of, you know, I've got to get it together and really, you know, kind of put my life back together.
26:02
Aimee Stevland: And so um I I still would not um do my own, I didn't get back to my own design or illustration right away.
26:11
Aimee Stevland: Um, I got it uh fortunately, I found positions that were uh adjacent to design.
26:17
Aimee Stevland: Um and and so behind the scenes, you know, personally I'm working on my own um my own artwork.
26:24
Aimee Stevland: I mean, I I played with um finger paints, I did exclusively, you know, left-hand work.
26:32
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
26:33
Aimee Stevland: Um I tried, you know, doing things with both hands, just you know, just trying anything uh to see what making how you know how making a mark that felt good to me, yeah type of thing.
26:46
Aimee Stevland: So yeah.
26:47
Aimee Stevland: So I I did a lot of experimentation before I kind of settled in this um this particular portrait style that that I developed.
26:55
Aimee Stevland: Um I do uh it's all vector art.
26:57
Aimee Stevland: Okay.
26:58
Aimee Stevland: So it's not AI, it's it's definitely created by me.
27:02
Aimee Stevland: Um it's it's all vectors.
27:04
Aimee Stevland: So what I guess think about it in terms of um the way that the great Al Hirschfeld, famous caricaturist, he used line, um, these really uh elegant lines and very minimal lines to create the essence of somebody.
27:17
Aimee Stevland: Yep.
27:18
Aimee Stevland: And um not comparing myself to him by any stretch, but he was a big inspiration to me.
27:23
Aimee Stevland: And I think what I pulled from that was um I could create with the computer, I could create shapes in the same way that he sort of created line.
27:31
Aimee Stevland: And so I um I was also inspired by some friends who did some wood woodwork, wood cutting.
27:36
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
27:37
Aimee Stevland: Uh-huh.
27:37
Aimee Stevland: And it and it also kind of um tingled my brain in terms of like how to structure um my artwork moving forward.
27:46
Aimee Stevland: So yeah, um, so these portraits came about as like a um a combination of um using shapes and color to um to uh bring out the essence and the likenesses of of these people that I'm celebrating.
28:02
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
28:03
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
28:03
Lisa Hopkins: Only you can see them the way you see them.
28:06
Lisa Hopkins: True.
28:07
Lisa Hopkins: Talk to me a little bit about uh how you see.
28:12
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
28:12
Aimee Stevland: I think there's a lot of things swirling around, especially as a white person who has chosen to uh take on black artists as a as a as a subject where um the history around that, the history um is quite fraught with uh a lot of racist imagery.
28:36
Aimee Stevland: And it's it's something that um something that bothered me as a kid, is sort of pulled from this of like, I am not seeing the type of artwork of these of my musical heroes that I would like to see if they're depicted at all.
28:53
Aimee Stevland: It's really important to me that the that these are respectful, affirming representations of these people because they haven't always had that.
29:04
Lisa Hopkins: There's an advocacy piece, which is strong, it sounds like.
29:07
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
29:08
Aimee Stevland: You know, as a kid, I noticed, you know, the representation of these people wasn't quite on par with what their white counterparts were getting.
29:17
Aimee Stevland: And then as I moved into actually being in the music space, the music business, I saw the bias and the barriers up close.
29:27
Aimee Stevland: Like I even I literally had an executive say to me, as I, you know, as I'm doing like my 50th Beatles shirt, you know, I'm going, hey, you know, we do a lot of these, you know, legacy, really important artists.
29:39
Aimee Stevland: But I'm not seeing James Brown.
29:40
Aimee Stevland: I'm not seeing Steven Wonder.
29:42
Aimee Stevland: I'm not seeing, you know, like, and when I brought this question up, I was literally told that black artists don't sell.
29:48
Aimee Stevland: And it would just floored me.
29:50
Aimee Stevland: And also it's just complete BS because, you know, these, you know, these hip hop is at the top of the charts, you know, all these people are being sampled.
29:59
Aimee Stevland: It just didn't make sense to me.
30:00
Aimee Stevland: So so you're right.
30:02
Aimee Stevland: There is uh a bit of advocacy here because of these experiences I had.
30:07
Aimee Stevland: Um and yeah, just wanting to a little bit of like wanting to prove these folks wrong and wanting to correct the record.
30:14
Aimee Stevland: Um, because the people who are current, you know, the current gatekeepers are are not telling a complete and honest story.
30:22
Aimee Stevland: So yeah, I think that's that's also a driving factor too.
30:25
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah, yeah.
30:26
Lisa Hopkins: Thank you for sharing that.
30:27
Lisa Hopkins: But has the way you you see changed, not just technically, but perceptually, like as you've grown older, as as the world has grown in the way it's grown, or yeah.
30:40
Aimee Stevland: I mean, I think because of now the way I create in shapes, you know, kind of my visual language has changed.
30:48
Aimee Stevland: Um, when I am interpreting things, you know, through my creative lens, I think, you know, I break down things a little bit differently.
30:56
Aimee Stevland: Um, I think especially doing portraiture, um, you know, I'm always looking at a human first.
31:03
Aimee Stevland: I'm always so, you know, when I when I'm looking at the the reference photos, you know, and they're looking me in the eye, you know, it's not about, you know, how many records they sold or what awards they won.
31:14
Aimee Stevland: I'm looking at a a person first and foremost, um, you know, who is excellent, you know, in their humanity just by being.
31:25
Aimee Stevland: And so I'm interpreting this famous person or maybe not so famous.
31:31
Aimee Stevland: And I I want you to get the the gravitas of what they've done.
31:34
Aimee Stevland: And you know, I sort of I sort of say I'm I'm reimagining cultural royalty because royalty has only looked looked one particular way for a long time.
31:44
Aimee Stevland: And so um, yeah, so I want I want to bring in the nobility of you know what they've accomplished, but I also hope that you just see them as you know, a person.
31:55
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
31:56
Aimee Stevland: Have you focused entirely on black artists?
31:58
Aimee Stevland: I've done a couple fun, you know, fun portraits uh, you know, on the side, but my when I have free time, I tend to, you know, I and because I was, you know, creating a book, um, I tended to to stick with um yeah black creators uh that that I have grown up with or have you know impacted my life in some way.
32:19
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
32:19
Aimee Stevland: They are sort of the architects of American culture.
32:24
Aimee Stevland: Everything that's so ubiquitous about you know our lives today comes from black creators.
32:30
Aimee Stevland: And so yeah.
32:31
Lisa Hopkins: I just heard that you've been invited for to do some sort of exhibition in San Francisco.
32:36
Lisa Hopkins: Is that right?
32:37
Aimee Stevland: Yeah, it's early, early days, but um, yeah, I'm I'm speaking with uh a Museum of the African Despora about um you know presenting this work in a in a you know a larger forum to you know to get this out.
32:50
Aimee Stevland: So yeah, I want you know it's it's important to me to partner with um you know black-led organizations.
32:56
Aimee Stevland: The the you know, part of the proceeds of the book is intended to be directed back to the community who inspired it.
33:03
Aimee Stevland: So my hope is to uh amplify you know the voices that are already out there, whatever resources that this book generates, I want to uh you know direct that back into the the black-led communities who are you know sort of bringing up the next generation of creators.
33:19
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah, yeah.
33:21
Lisa Hopkins: Bravo.
33:21
Lisa Hopkins: So would you say it's a a passion project?
33:24
Lisa Hopkins: I mean, it you generated it yourself, right?
33:26
Lisa Hopkins: So yeah, I mean, yeah.
33:28
Lisa Hopkins: I mean, I can relate.
33:28
Lisa Hopkins: Definitely, yeah.
33:29
Aimee Stevland: I mean, I think, you know, can thinking about the fact that I, you know, as a kid, I was doodling and drawing cartoons and doing this.
33:35
Aimee Stevland: I mean, who does in this crazy, you know, world of social media, it's like, you know, something exists for about 10 seconds and that's it.
33:43
Aimee Stevland: You know, I've been doing this for 30 years.
33:45
Aimee Stevland: Who does that anymore?
33:46
Aimee Stevland: I don't know.
33:47
Aimee Stevland: But but yeah, it just uh it just felt like this is clearly in my DNA.
33:53
Aimee Stevland: This is clearly a part of my heart.
33:55
Aimee Stevland: And um I think I wanted to take it from sort of like the the the fleeting uh scrolling of social media.
34:03
Aimee Stevland: And um the reason I made it a book was to give it some permanence so that it can um, you know, can be like an art gallery that you return to over and over again.
34:13
Aimee Stevland: Um, you know, it's sitting in your house, it's on your bookshelf, it's on your coffee table, um, and you can just pick it up and enjoy it at any moment.
34:21
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
34:21
Lisa Hopkins: So what are you doing when you're not doing that?
34:23
Lisa Hopkins: What's your what's the what's the rhythm of your days?
34:26
Aimee Stevland: Yeah, it really um I mean, I do have a I do have a nine to five, but really this has been taking up um most of my free time.
34:34
Aimee Stevland: It it's funny, it's you know, making the book was a lot of work and you know, completing all of the um completing all of the portraits and then writing about why they matter, you know, so to speak.
34:45
Aimee Stevland: I'm not a writer, but this was, you know, you know, I can't just put out a book of portraits.
34:51
Aimee Stevland: I I don't think it wouldn't, it wouldn't do them justice if I didn't also explain why they were chosen.
34:57
Aimee Stevland: What what did they do that immediately connects to the things that we see today?
35:01
Aimee Stevland: Like what like um things like that.
35:04
Aimee Stevland: So all the writing and the you know the creation of it was one thing.
35:08
Aimee Stevland: But now um, again, in this crazy uh world we live in, the attention economy, now it's the marketing and the getting, you know, getting the word out, which is um so much harder than the book actually was to make.
35:24
Aimee Stevland: So no, it's that is yeah, so that is uh that's where my time is mostly going.
35:30
Aimee Stevland: Is now I've done this.
35:31
Aimee Stevland: Um I didn't do it in a vacuum.
35:34
Aimee Stevland: Um, I want people to know about it.
35:35
Aimee Stevland: So yeah, 100%.
35:37
Lisa Hopkins: 100%.
35:37
Lisa Hopkins: Is is AI a thing for you?
35:39
Lisa Hopkins: Do you worry about it sort of replacing you?
35:43
Aimee Stevland: It's uh right now it's more of a nuisance than it is.
35:47
Aimee Stevland: Um than I'm worried about full-blown extinction.
35:51
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
35:51
Aimee Stevland: Um I don't know, maybe I should be, but uh no.
35:54
Aimee Stevland: It's definitely a thing for me, yeah.
35:57
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
35:58
Lisa Hopkins: Well, yeah, like everybody, right?
35:59
Lisa Hopkins: So what would you say is your definition of living in the moment?
36:03
Aimee Stevland: Oh my gosh.
36:05
Aimee Stevland: Wow.
36:05
Aimee Stevland: This is something that uh God, I think I I struggle with every day, but I do not have a definition for myself, but I feel like this is the closest I've ever heard to it.
36:16
Aimee Stevland: Okay.
36:17
Aimee Stevland: And it this is an excerpt from one of Mary Oliver's poems, uh, and it's and it goes, I wouldn't mind being a rose in a field full of roses.
36:25
Aimee Stevland: Fear has not yet occurred to them, nor ambition.
36:28
Aimee Stevland: Reason they have not yet thought of, neither do they ask how long they must be roses, and then what, or any other foolish question.
36:36
Aimee Stevland: And when I heard this, um I was like, it was like my body turned to honey, or my brain was sliding out my ear.
36:47
Aimee Stevland: I don't know which, but I just had such a visceral reaction that I was like, wow, that is being in the moment, those roses.
36:57
Aimee Stevland: They don't know fear, they don't know ambition.
37:00
Aimee Stevland: They're just roses.
37:02
Lisa Hopkins: No, it's beautiful.
37:03
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
37:04
Aimee Stevland: I'll take that.
37:05
Aimee Stevland: I just uh I just had that experience.
37:08
Aimee Stevland: Um, yeah, and I felt like that, yeah, that for me uh is the embodiment.
37:14
Aimee Stevland: Uh again, being a visual person, not so great with words.
37:18
Aimee Stevland: Uh there you go, Mary Oliver.
37:21
Lisa Hopkins: I'm just gonna blow it up and say it's not true that you're not good with words.
37:24
Lisa Hopkins: Uh you say that in your introduction of your book.
37:27
Lisa Hopkins: You said that with me when you started.
37:30
Lisa Hopkins: That right?
37:30
Lisa Hopkins: So it's just not true.
37:32
Lisa Hopkins: I mean, that's that's like someone saying black artists don't sell.
37:37
Lisa Hopkins: It's because because nobody's doing it.
37:39
Lisa Hopkins: So you need to continue speaking.
37:41
Lisa Hopkins: I'll take that.
37:43
Aimee Stevland: I'll take that.
37:43
Aimee Stevland: You receive.
37:46
Lisa Hopkins: Noted.
37:47
Lisa Hopkins: What would your what would your younger self be proud of?
37:53
Aimee Stevland: Oh my gosh.
37:54
Aimee Stevland: Wow.
37:54
Aimee Stevland: You know, yeah, thinking back to that that little girl back in Michigan, uh, on my little shag carpeting, just drawing.
38:01
Aimee Stevland: Um I've I've accomplished so many things I didn't even know I could, um, or that were, you know, things that would be available to me.
38:12
Aimee Stevland: Um, so I I I'd be pretty cool in the eyes of uh little me.
38:19
Aimee Stevland: She'd probably think we did all right.
38:21
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
38:22
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
38:23
Lisa Hopkins: If you didn't do what you do, what would you do?
38:28
Lisa Hopkins: Do you ever dream of doing anything else?
38:34
Aimee Stevland: I mean, you know, I was sort of faced with this once, you know, when when my hands stopped working.
38:39
Aimee Stevland: What if I, you know, what if I couldn't do what I I wanted to do?
38:42
Aimee Stevland: Um, and I found my way back in this sense.
38:46
Aimee Stevland: Um, I don't know if that is just uh the dial that I'm set at and I will always find my way to it somehow.
38:54
Aimee Stevland: But um to answer, I don't know, I guess the literal sort of interpretation of that question.
38:59
Aimee Stevland: I love animals.
39:01
Aimee Stevland: I might, you know, I would would, you know, maybe do something in that realm.
39:05
Aimee Stevland: Um, work with animals some some kind of way.
39:09
Lisa Hopkins: If we were sitting here again, I don't know, five, 10 years from now, and you're looking back.
39:15
Lisa Hopkins: Can you imagine yourself 10 years from now?
39:18
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
39:18
Aimee Stevland: I, you know, I don't know if this is a problem of thinking too small or I don't know, but really this book is so important to me.
39:24
Aimee Stevland: Um, it's the f it's me stepping out.
39:26
Aimee Stevland: Again, I'm I'm self-publishing it.
39:28
Aimee Stevland: Um, everything, it's, you know, again, a 30-year journey, sort of all encompassed in this book.
39:35
Aimee Stevland: And um I would just really love to see it be, you know, as successful as it can be, that people, you know, have it in their homes and they return to it and they love it.
39:45
Aimee Stevland: There was one person that uh, you know, had already seen and said, you know, I want my grandson to have this.
39:50
Aimee Stevland: And I was like, oh, that's all I ever wanted to hear.
39:54
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
39:55
Lisa Hopkins: Fantastic.
39:56
Lisa Hopkins: I love that.
39:57
Lisa Hopkins: You ever considered doing a portrait of yourself?
40:01
Aimee Stevland: Um, I have.
40:02
Aimee Stevland: I have.
40:03
Aimee Stevland: I've cartooned myself.
40:05
Aimee Stevland: The portraits are actually sort of a mashup of uh they're a little bit of a nudge at high art and the sort of Euroclassical uh sort of norms, these Greek busts, you know, these things that have have become shorthand for like power and prestige and royalty.
40:21
Aimee Stevland: And so I took the Greek bust and uh I took those Saturday morning cartoons that were so much of my DNA growing up, and that's uh what these are, is sort of like a fun mashup.
40:32
Aimee Stevland: Uh so I haven't given myself that particular treatment, um, but I've I've drawn cartoons of myself in the past, sure.
40:40
Lisa Hopkins: The reason I ask is because again, for someone who says that you know they can't uh speak, um you've you you've you've launched some strong images in my head because you speak in pictures.
40:53
Lisa Hopkins: So, so so you naturally, right?
40:56
Lisa Hopkins: Um, from my point of view.
40:57
Lisa Hopkins: I mean, I don't know you, but just based on our conversation.
40:59
Lisa Hopkins: So you said a couple of things, one being, you know, I I I don't know if I turned into honey or if my brain fell out my ear.
41:06
Lisa Hopkins: Right.
41:07
Lisa Hopkins: So, like that stuck with me.
41:09
Lisa Hopkins: That's an image.
41:10
Lisa Hopkins: You you you used words to create an image that stuck with me.
41:14
Lisa Hopkins: So even though you didn't put it on paper, but I'm curious, and it was about you.
41:18
Lisa Hopkins: And so it just it just strikes me that there there might be some real gold there to talk about you as a subject.
41:27
Aimee Stevland: I have my moments.
41:28
Lisa Hopkins: I certainly have my moments.
41:30
Lisa Hopkins: Well, as a cartoon strip, even, right?
41:32
Lisa Hopkins: Like, I mean, literally, it's very relatable, it's very, very relatable.
41:35
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah, so I just uh offer that to you.
41:38
Lisa Hopkins: You can take it and run with it if you want.
41:40
Lisa Hopkins: Food for thought.
41:43
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah, no, it's interesting because it it's uh it's easy for you to to brush it off, and it's easy for you to say, I'm not good at this, I'm not good at that.
41:54
Lisa Hopkins: But what I am good at is elevating them and seeing what everybody else is good at.
41:57
Lisa Hopkins: And so what I'm doing is I I'm I'm turning here on you and going, Well, actually, you're really funny.
42:04
Lisa Hopkins: Isn't that funny how that works?
42:05
Lisa Hopkins: And that's my that's my jam, right?
42:10
Lisa Hopkins: Is is is seeing people.
42:11
Lisa Hopkins: That's what I do, seeing people.
42:13
Lisa Hopkins: I love it.
42:13
Lisa Hopkins: What delights you?
42:14
Lisa Hopkins: Like what absolutely delights you?
42:18
Aimee Stevland: Oh my gosh.
42:19
Aimee Stevland: I I think I always come back to music.
42:21
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
42:23
Aimee Stevland: Music is just so uh, you know, it can be the same old stuff that I, you know, in my playlist from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, or you know, the occasional new stuff.
42:31
Aimee Stevland: Um yeah, just really does uh I don't know, really just does something to your molecules.
42:39
Lisa Hopkins: Oh yeah, I agree.
42:40
Lisa Hopkins: I'm with you.
42:40
Lisa Hopkins: What's on replay right now on your playlist?
42:42
Lisa Hopkins: Are you do you have something that's really that you're playing all the time?
42:45
Aimee Stevland: Um I'm really loving there's a couple of really great artists right now, just incredible voices.
42:51
Aimee Stevland: Um, Durand Bernard is um uh an incredible RB artist.
42:55
Aimee Stevland: And then um a friend of mine, uh, his name is B Slade, just put out a new record.
42:59
Aimee Stevland: Um, he's an independent artist, and and these two just incredible voices.
43:04
Aimee Stevland: It's crazy that you know we don't hear more from them.
43:08
Aimee Stevland: I think Durand is having a little bit of a um is of a come up now, well deserved.
43:12
Aimee Stevland: Uh B Slade is a little still a little bit more underground, but if you ever heard this guy's voice, it's like, why is he not famous?
43:18
Aimee Stevland: Um, so yeah.
43:20
Aimee Stevland: Yeah, that's cool.
43:22
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
43:22
Aimee Stevland: How did you find them?
43:23
Aimee Stevland: Um, one one of the ways that I got into new music for a while was at the roller rink.
43:28
Aimee Stevland: The roller rink DJs, now, this is an interesting thing about again, about our history and our culture is um, you know, our roller skating rinks uh functioned as a little bit of a tastemaker way back in the day.
43:40
Aimee Stevland: Um, you know, if a if a roller rink DJ was playing it, it was it had a better chance of getting to the radio because people, it was already hot.
43:49
Aimee Stevland: Yeah, that's cool.
43:50
Aimee Stevland: Yeah, and a lot of hip hop artists were, you know, because they weren't able to perform in um, you know, regular venues, roller rinks opened up, and that's where they had some of their first showcases was um at the roller rinks.
44:03
Aimee Stevland: So all that to say, um, I think the roller rink is where I probably heard Duran certainly first.
44:08
Aimee Stevland: Um B Slade is a fellow Janet Jackson fan, so we have uh bonded you know over that.
44:14
Aimee Stevland: And then um, yeah, he's just an incredible talent.
44:17
Lisa Hopkins: So um, yeah, so many uh wonderful people in that orbit.
44:20
Lisa Hopkins: The roller uh skating thing is really interesting.
44:22
Lisa Hopkins: It makes sense.
44:23
Lisa Hopkins: As you say it, I'm going, of course.
44:25
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
44:25
Lisa Hopkins: I mean, that makes a lot of sense.
44:26
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
44:27
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
44:27
Lisa Hopkins: All right.
44:28
Lisa Hopkins: I don't want to keep you too long.
44:30
Lisa Hopkins: I want to be uh honor your time.
44:32
Lisa Hopkins: I'm so enjoying speaking with you though, truly.
44:34
Lisa Hopkins: I oh thank you.
44:35
Lisa Hopkins: So it's been a pleasure.
44:36
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
44:36
Lisa Hopkins: Thank you so much.
44:37
Lisa Hopkins: It's just so great.
44:38
Lisa Hopkins: Let's just do the rapid fire.
44:39
Lisa Hopkins: So I'm just going to say what makes you, and then you just whatever comes to mind.
44:43
Lisa Hopkins: Okay.
44:44
Lisa Hopkins: There are no right answers.
44:46
Lisa Hopkins: And there are no wrong answers.
44:48
Lisa Hopkins: So what makes you hungry?
44:54
Aimee Stevland: The the word coming to mind is knowledge.
44:57
Aimee Stevland: I'm hungry for knowledge.
44:58
Lisa Hopkins: What color is hungry for you?
45:01
Aimee Stevland: What color is hungry?
45:03
Aimee Stevland: Off the dome royal purple.
45:07
Aimee Stevland: Nice.
45:10
Lisa Hopkins: What makes you sad?
45:13
Aimee Stevland: Um disconnection.
45:14
Aimee Stevland: People when people um are yeah, just out of connection.
45:25
Lisa Hopkins: What color is disconnection?
45:30
Aimee Stevland: I s I I This is so funny.
45:32
Aimee Stevland: Um I I see it almost clear.
45:35
Aimee Stevland: It's like translucent.
45:36
Aimee Stevland: Like you've lost you've lost them.
45:38
Aimee Stevland: The transmission is is lost.
45:40
Aimee Stevland: It's clear.
45:42
Lisa Hopkins: I love that.
45:43
Lisa Hopkins: What inspires you?
45:48
Aimee Stevland: I mean not to not to be a broken record, but music.
45:51
Aimee Stevland: What is it about music that inspires you?
45:54
Aimee Stevland: Music puts me in my body.
45:56
Lisa Hopkins: Yes.
45:57
Aimee Stevland: And it gives me a different, yeah, gives me a different perspective on everything.
46:02
Lisa Hopkins: When you're in your body more, what does that allow you to be?
46:08
Aimee Stevland: It removes all the inhibitions.
46:09
Aimee Stevland: I'm just feeling this music.
46:11
Aimee Stevland: I'm not thinking about how goofy I might look.
46:14
Lisa Hopkins: I love it.
46:15
Aimee Stevland: The colourest picture I can think of.
46:16
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
46:17
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah, I know.
46:17
Lisa Hopkins: That's brilliant.
46:18
Aimee Stevland: What frustrates you?
46:19
Aimee Stevland: My petty answer is inconsiderate people and bad drivers.
46:31
Lisa Hopkins: It's real.
46:32
Lisa Hopkins: Frustration is real.
46:33
Lisa Hopkins: What frustrates you about yourself, if anything?
46:37
Aimee Stevland: Me getting frustrated about that takes away my energy.
46:42
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah, there you go.
46:43
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
46:43
Lisa Hopkins: You get frustrated about feeling frustrated.
46:45
Aimee Stevland: Yeah, it's a big circle.
46:47
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
46:48
Lisa Hopkins: What makes you laugh?
46:54
Aimee Stevland: My my wife and I are constantly giggling.
46:57
Aimee Stevland: Um, and sometimes loudly.
46:59
Aimee Stevland: Sometimes I'm afraid the neighbors are gonna think that like something else is going on.
47:03
Aimee Stevland: But um my wife and I, we have a I don't know, a shorthand together.
47:08
Aimee Stevland: And um, I don't know.
47:10
Aimee Stevland: We're I just feel like I'm always laughing with her.
47:14
Lisa Hopkins: That's awesome.
47:14
Lisa Hopkins: I love that.
47:15
Lisa Hopkins: How long have you guys been married?
47:17
Aimee Stevland: Uh been married for 10 years this year.
47:19
Aimee Stevland: Yeah, together for four 14.
47:21
Lisa Hopkins: Oh, that's amazing.
47:22
Lisa Hopkins: And this was not the person that you came out to San Francisco.
47:24
Lisa Hopkins: No, no.
47:25
Lisa Hopkins: I love that.
47:27
Lisa Hopkins: Fantastic.
47:28
Aimee Stevland: That's great.
47:29
Aimee Stevland: And and ironically, she grew up in Michigan.
47:31
Aimee Stevland: And we didn't meet until uh she came out here to California.
47:35
Aimee Stevland: So yeah, we grew up the same age.
47:37
Aimee Stevland: We grew up probably like a town or two apart, but didn't find each other until she came out to California.
47:42
Lisa Hopkins: So one of those weird things.
47:45
Lisa Hopkins: Meant to be.
47:46
Lisa Hopkins: It was meant to be.
47:48
Lisa Hopkins: That's pretty cool.
47:49
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah, a part of the blow up.
47:50
Lisa Hopkins: She's part of the great blow-up.
47:51
Aimee Stevland: She's part of the great blow up for sure.
47:53
Aimee Stevland: Yeah, I love it.
47:55
Aimee Stevland: Yeah, it allowed me.
47:57
Aimee Stevland: I went through some stuff and it allowed me to finally find her.
48:00
Aimee Stevland: So oh, I love that.
48:02
Lisa Hopkins: Even though she was there all along.
48:04
Lisa Hopkins: Um that's awesome.
48:05
Lisa Hopkins: What makes you angry?
48:07
Lisa Hopkins: So different than frustrated.
48:08
Lisa Hopkins: What makes you angry?
48:11
Aimee Stevland: Oh, I guess that would be just all the injustice and unkindness in the world.
48:17
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
48:18
Aimee Stevland: Finally, what makes you grateful?
48:20
Aimee Stevland: I mean, when I I look around everything about my life right now, um I'm so grateful for, um, I'm grateful that I have, you know, the space and the opportunity to do, you know, pri you know, personal passion project type work.
48:40
Aimee Stevland: Um capitalism capitalism isn't always uh an artist's best friend.
48:44
Aimee Stevland: Um I um, you know, I'm grateful that I, you know, that I currently still have a job.
48:51
Aimee Stevland: Um again, I'm grateful for um, you know, my wife and and all the you know the love she provides and support she provides.
49:00
Aimee Stevland: My little kitty cats over here.
49:02
Aimee Stevland: Love them.
49:04
Aimee Stevland: Um I just, yeah, I um I don't know, it's I don't want to sound trite, but I I'm just grateful for everything.
49:12
Aimee Stevland: I got a chance to sit outside this morning um because I got up a little early and I got to watch, I got to sit in my backyard and watch the sunrise.
49:21
Aimee Stevland: And I feel like just that sentence alone, um, that's uh something that a lot of people can't do.
49:28
Aimee Stevland: And I have the ability to do that, and um it's a simple thing, but I I'm grateful for that.
49:36
Lisa Hopkins: It's simple, but it's profound.
49:38
Lisa Hopkins: We get very mired in all the negative stuff that's around us.
49:42
Lisa Hopkins: But what uh what is also true is you know, most incredible things that are simple, right?
49:49
Lisa Hopkins: Um, but that are there, and then they become generative things when you actually experience them.
49:54
Lisa Hopkins: That's living in the moment, isn't it?
49:56
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
49:57
Lisa Hopkins: I usually ask, and I'm gonna ask, what are the top three things that happened so far today?
50:01
Lisa Hopkins: I'm guessing that was one of them.
50:03
Aimee Stevland: That's one of them.
50:05
Aimee Stevland: But yeah, um, I got I got up and got to watch the sunrise.
50:08
Aimee Stevland: We had some kind of intruder in the backyard that upset the cats.
50:12
Aimee Stevland: Uh so I I never saw it.
50:14
Aimee Stevland: I don't know what they were upset about, but uh, we had some kind of adventure in in the backyard today.
50:19
Aimee Stevland: And um, and then I I'm speaking with you this morning.
50:24
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
50:25
Lisa Hopkins: I'm smiling because I love that number two was the intruder.
50:31
Aimee Stevland: I'm talking about a critter, not a no, no, no, I know that, no, I know that, obviously.
50:37
Lisa Hopkins: But it's I think it's cute that that that was like one of the top three things.
50:40
Lisa Hopkins: Like it was kind of an interesting, anomalous kind of thing.
50:43
Aimee Stevland: Backyard adventures this morning.
50:45
Aimee Stevland: Yeah.
50:45
Lisa Hopkins: I love that.
50:46
Lisa Hopkins: I love it.
50:47
Lisa Hopkins: So, what are you most looking forward to today?
50:49
Lisa Hopkins: Oh goodness.
50:51
Aimee Stevland: Um I I just have some adulting to do.
50:55
Aimee Stevland: I have some exciting things I need to get off in the mail for the book.
50:58
Aimee Stevland: Um, again, to get the word out.
51:00
Aimee Stevland: Um, so I'm oddly looking forward to going to the post office later today.
51:03
Aimee Stevland: Cool.
51:04
Aimee Stevland: Um, to get the word out.
51:06
Lisa Hopkins: It's an exciting time, isn't it?
51:08
Lisa Hopkins: Yes, certainly is.
51:10
Aimee Stevland: Time, exciting time.
51:11
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah, and savor that because that's just as important.
51:13
Lisa Hopkins: That's part of it.
51:14
Lisa Hopkins: I mean, do you know what I mean?
51:15
Lisa Hopkins: It's we could look at it as it's part of it that we have to do because we got to get out in the world.
51:21
Lisa Hopkins: Or just no, that's just part of it.
51:23
Lisa Hopkins: We get to do that.
51:24
Lisa Hopkins: You know, you wrote a book, you know, yeah.
51:26
Lisa Hopkins: Put together a book.
51:27
Lisa Hopkins: You did, and you get to go to the post office and share it.
51:30
Lisa Hopkins: I mean, that's exactly that's awesome.
51:32
Lisa Hopkins: Good for you.
51:32
Lisa Hopkins: And what are you most looking forward to in the future, like long term?
51:37
Aimee Stevland: Well, like I said, I am looking forward to making this book really successful.
51:42
Aimee Stevland: Um and uh, you know, and and whatever that leads to, whatever, you know, impact I can make around, you know, uh understanding our history in a little bit more inclusive and honest way, supporting people that are already doing that.
51:57
Aimee Stevland: As I as I mentioned, my wife and I are celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary this year.
52:02
Aimee Stevland: So we have a little trip coming up uh to nature, getting away to nature.
52:07
Aimee Stevland: So looking forward to that.
52:08
Lisa Hopkins: I cannot thank you enough for joining me today.
52:10
Lisa Hopkins: I've really enjoyed myself and getting to know you.
52:13
Aimee Stevland: Oh, thank you so much, Lisa.
52:14
Aimee Stevland: It's been a pleasure.
52:15
Lisa Hopkins: Yeah.
52:15
Lisa Hopkins: I've been speaking today with Amy Stevlin.
52:17
Lisa Hopkins: I'm Lisa Hopkins.
52:19
Lisa Hopkins: Stay safe and healthy, everyone, and remember to live in the moment.
52:23
Lisa Hopkins: In music, stop time is that beautiful moment where the band is suspended in rhythmic unison, supporting the soloists to express their individuality.
52:34
Lisa Hopkins: In the moment, I encourage you to take that time and create your own rhythm.
52:41
Lisa Hopkins: Until next time, I'm Lisa Hopkins.
52:44
Lisa Hopkins: Thanks for listening.